Calling and folding is a horrible way to play poker

So having realized that there is no compromise that the President was willing to make on war funding benchmarks, we see that the Democrats have now completely capitulated to Mr. Bush and his never-ending war.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis) is just as angry as those of us in the rank-and-file, terming it a Democratic "collapse" in this diary at Daily Kos:

This situation is a collapse for Democrats. We had a strong start, pushed back against the President’s failed policy and held our ground that the supplemental should include binding language to end the war. But now, as Congress gets ready to send the President a bill that does nothing to get our troops out of Iraq, we are just folding our cards. As one person commented under Greg Sargent’s great post at TPM cafe, "Send the Congressional Dems over to my place for some poker - I could use a windfall right now."

This is no time to back down. This fight to end the war isn’t something that we can just put off or kick down the road. As mcjoan pointed out, it doesn’t make any sense to wait until this "mythical September" when Republicans will suddenly decide that we need to get out of Iraq. Why should this wait until September? First Americans had to put up with a Republican Congress that did nothing, and now we are faced with a Democratic Congress that is giving the President exactly what he wants – continuing his failed policy and leaving our troops stuck in the middle of a civil war. Some strategy. We can’t back down when the stakes are so high. I know you’ll keep ratcheting up the pressure, and that’s exactly what we need right now. Now is the time to be pulling out all the stops to end the war.

As a former presidential candidate asked over thirty years ago: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" And in the meantime, the carnage continues, food supplies for the troops are in jeopardy, and Bush's acknowledged plan to run out the clock and pass the mess on to his successor appears to be building steam.

"We're not leaving, so long as I'm the President." - GWB